Being an “app designer” is a trend that’s on the upswing. Microsoft is stoking the creative fire with Project Siena. Project Siena is designed to be a user-friendly way for everyone to build their own Windows 8.1 programs with the same knowhow that goes into using Microsoft PowerPoint or Microsoft Excel. Project Siena is also a “Metro” app, so you can just as easily use it on your Windows touch-enabled tablet. It is a 3.4 MB sized free download for Windows 8.1.

Siena apps are all HTML5 and JavaScript, so they are easily extensible to any kind of use you want to put them into. It’s in a beta release now, and is intended for business experts, business analysts, consultants, and other “app imagineers”. You can make customizable apps and power them with your specific business intelligence. Any app can also be shared with the rest of the world. Take a look at some sample apps here.

The learning curve? Microsoft says it’s easy as editing a document and you do not need any specialized app development knowledge. To begin: Think through the visual look for the app and place the elements on the canvas –connect the data – write Excel-like expressions to add functions and logic to the features. According to Microsoft, Siena works well with corporate and web data and media content: SharePoint lists, Excel and Windows Azure tables, RSS feeds, and the gamut of RESTful services.

Microsoft has strung together help and support resources around Project Siena. Take a look at some sample apps and give your imagination a hand with your own. Don’t forget to tell us about your first app designing experience.

These have not been successful in the past. Mozilla has App Maker. I used it like five years ago. It made connecting to the interfaces easy but the dexterity is not there and sometimes using just plane Vi is a lot easier for some programming tasks. Dr. Seuss also wanted to make more stories available to early reader so he chose a vocabulary simplified vocabulary of 250 words. He did Cat in the Hat in 236. I would find it very hard to believe that one can be as expressive limited to 250 as someone who can use all words. Simplified Apps do not Angry Birds make!

Saikat is a techno-adventurer in a writer's garb. When he is not scouring the net for tech news, you can catch him looking for life hacks and learning tidbits. You can find him on LinkedIn & Twitter watching over the world.